


How Nico Robin Got Her Man

by sadlygrove



Category: One Piece
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-07-05
Updated: 2008-07-05
Packaged: 2017-10-18 08:05:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,688
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/186750
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sadlygrove/pseuds/sadlygrove
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In a long line of men in her life, there are a few that stand out for Nico Robin.</p>
            </blockquote>





	How Nico Robin Got Her Man

Like most children, the first man in Nico Robin’s life was her father. But he was neither here nor there, if he had ever really been anywhere at all. So he didn’t count.

The second man in Robin’s life was Professor Clover. He counted. On the island, he was regarded by all children as a curiosity—even by Robin who was, as it were, a curiosity herself. Professor Clover rarely ever came out of The Tree. When he did, he would tower over the children much like The Tree itself, casting a long shadow in his wake. Some of the children said he was a monster; he cooked up strange recipes in The Tree, the secret ingredient often being children, to their horror. Other youngsters, who hadn’t been warned about Professor Clover from over-protective parents, just thought he was a crazy old man who had a lot to say about nothing. Robin didn’t have anyone to warn her against Professor Clover; if he did happen to be a monster, then that was alright with the young girl, Nico Robin being a monster in kind anyway. However, the old man turned out to be more like a saint. He recognized something in Robin—her mother, perhaps—and gave her a book. Then another. And another after that. Professor Clover began an addiction that would last some twenty years, just as he began many other things that Nico Robin would eventually come to finish. Because of this, Robin liked to think of Professor Clover as the first man in her life.

The next man towered over her too, though he towered over most things. Saul gave something to Robin that Professor Clover couldn’t quite; the ability to laugh. Granted, it would evolve in time to nothing more than a knowing smile, but it was still there, and Robin was thankful for it. Around that time she also began to notice her penchant for taller men, though none would ever be quite as tall as Saul.

Should she count Aokiji as the next man in her life? Maybe. Another tall man, he was always watching over her. Robin didn’t know if she should be thankful or horrified. His ice could save a young girl from certain death or trap a woman in a world colder than anything she had ever known. One thing was for certain, though; Aokiji always let Robin know that there was something colder in the world than herself.

There were many other men after that, most of them dead now by her hand or by proxy. None of them counted. Well. Crocodile. He definitely stood out in a long line of scum bags. The Shichibukai had been rather tall too, hadn’t he? With that fur coat and golden hook, he’d look like a dashing pirate, but he had really been more of a hideous brute in the end. Robin was certain there were points she could either thank or curse Crocodile on, but it hardly mattered. She preferred not to even think of her time in that sandy wasteland anymore. Eventually she knew she’d have to face a certain blue-haired princess who was technically her nakama now, even though Robin had done terrible, awful things to her. But maybe if six others with the ‘X’ mark could forgive her, so could the princess.

After a long line of dirt-bags as the man in her life, it was unexpected that she should ever see the light again. When Robin walked out of the Going Merry’s cabin, she hardly anticipated to be there long enough to call the little ship ‘home.’ And, if that were the case, then there was no way she expected that goofy strawhat-wearing kid to be the man that would save her life and her will to live. That was all that even needed to be said about him, as far as Robin was concerned. She could never pay him back fully, but she would sail with him to the ends of the waters until he told her otherwise. He was the first man, Robin thought, whose command she could take without an ounce of hesitation or question.

The first mate on the Going Merry had been less quick to trust her—Robin admired that. (He was also rather tall, but not quite as tall as her.) He was amusing, at first, the way he had a one-track-mind for training and getting stronger. Then Robin found that amusement turned into nothing less than admiration; she had been granted power through the bite of a forbidden fruit, but he was earning his strength one step at a time. She hadn’t truly admired anyone in a long while; not that she would ever tell the younger man, but she never had to. He never asked for it. Things sort of cemented for them—in whatever way—after the journey into the clouds. Robin heard—from other people, never him—that he had saved her. She hadn’t exactly been all there at the time, but Robin found she could accept it. A man had saved her. Okay.

The other one, the chef with pretty blond hair, had been too quick to trust her. That had been most surprising. The way he doted upon her and the redhead was simply fascinating. Robin was sure there was a great psychological story behind it all, but it told her absolutely that chivalry was not dead. It was just hidden in a brusque chef who could impale entire legions with his small toe. Robin knew she was beautiful—many men had told her so before—but she had never known herself to be worth putting up with for long. The blond man was a curious case on Robin’s list, and she found the only thing she could ever say to him was ‘thank you.’

Did the reindeer count? He was cute, always hiding behind her legs. The doctor could be tall, but for the most part he was quite short. He looked up to her—in more than one way—and always came to her first when he had an accomplishment to chat about or question to ask. He reminded Robin of her times in The Tree, when she would pester Professor Clover to no end with theories or new discoveries made in a dusty old text. The young doctor often made her feel like a mother—or what Robin imagined a mother feels like. She’d never thought about having children before. It was… nice.

The long-nosed one had tried to talk sense into her on the train. For all his lies and stories, he had spoken the plainest truth to Robin that day. Later, when the chef had told her about the great fight between the long-nosed one and the captain, Robin understood. She understood how much pain he must have been in, to say those words to Robin that he probably wanted to hear himself more than anything. And, for all his previous lies and stories, a part of her had believed him. The seed had been planted; she began to suppose that she was worth a damn.

Although he was little more than her executioner, Rob Lucci was another man in Robin’s life. He was tall, though that was mostly the hat and his bloody aura building him up. There were things he said on their walk to Impel Down that she would like to shut out forever, but they were words Robin knew long ago that she would have to face sooner or later. Fangs would haunt her dreams for a little while longer, she was sure, but they were beginning to fade even now. She knew why:

The last man on her list was taller than her, the first man to be so in a very long time. She knew little about him except what had been presented to her in the case folder by CP9 agents. There was little surprise that he ended up next to her in Spandam’s headquarters, but it had been a shock to see him try to gnaw the man’s head off. Very strange. And maybe she had been dizzy or delirious, but it also struck Robin as bizarre that the robotic man should have so much fury in his eyes when Spandam struck a woman he didn’t even know. There would be many more strange things with Franky as time went on, least of which was him inflating and trying to blow up the government building. With his butt. Very strange.

As smoke and rubble cleared, Robin got to her knees and looked up. She thought to herself then—and she didn’t really know why—that the iron man standing in front of her, shielding her no less, really was taller.

Robin didn’t quite know what to make of that.

He tried to tell her that she had friends. That they were coming for her. That she was worth it, and he was going to help her get back.

Robin tried her hardest not to listen to those false hopes, but they got through anyway. If it hadn’t been for him in that room with her, she may have resigned to her fate—but Robin didn’t like to dwell on such things these days.

Back on Water 7, Robin would often trek down to the shipyard and watch him work. He would smile, wave, and offer her small talk before getting back to his duty. Eventually Robin began to take a lunch with her—plenty of cola too—and somehow convinced Franky to sit and talk for just a little longer each day. She asked him about Water 7, and he spoke of it with such pride and love that Robin got a notion he wouldn’t be going with her nakama to the sea. Franky would simply build them a new ship and send the Strawhats on their way. That bothered her more than she cared to admit.

So, on that fateful day, she pulled no punches, but Robin did pull other things and eventually ‘convinced’ the shipwright to get on the damn boat and have lunch with her at sea.


End file.
